Clackamas County government will continue to run on a four-days-a-week schedule, except for construction-related services, despite an effort by two county commissioners to return all county services to the five-day work week last seen in 2008.

Those departments are figuring out how to implement the change and will bring it back to the board for approval. Cam Gilmour, director of the transportation and development department, said he plans to make the switch this year.

Most county departments switched to working four 10-hour days, Monday through Thursday, in 2008. The goal was to save energy costs, reduce commuting, boost employee satisfaction and add a helpful hour at the beginning and end of each day so people who work 9-to-5 jobs could receive counter service before or after work.

Overall, county employees support the schedule. Several adjust their days to accommodate child care or other obligations and work a few hours on Friday or take shorter lunch breaks.

Emergency services, county records and the Elections Office remained on a five-day work week.

For the building department, the problem will be figuring out how to make do with a smaller staff than when it previously was open five days a week. After the economy tanked in 2008, the building division reduced ranks from 47 to 19 employees, and the planning side -- while not suffering layoffs -- went from 25 to about 17 through attrition. Currently, the development office's, which includes the building division, lobby hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday. The board stipulated last week that the lobby must stay open at least seven hours on Friday as well, but which hours of the day are flexible. That policy extends as well to Water and Environmental Services offices that deal with construction-related businesses.

Commissioners John Ludlow and Tootie Smith advocated switching all county operations back to a five-day work week. Commissioner Paul Savas supported expanding hours only for all construction-related services.

"We keep getting away from whom we serve and who pays the salaries and that's the public and I want to avail them of all the services," Ludlow said in advocating a five-day week for all departments.

When Ludlow said that department heads had the discretion under his motion's wording to permit flexible schedules, a few employees spoke out heatedly, saying flexible schedules were impossible with only five or so staffers.

Commissioner Jim Bernard started the meeting with an aggressive defense of the four-day work week, citing a Portland State University study of the first year of the pilot program that estimated it could save $456,000 per year, including staff's gas expenditures, building and energy costs.

The county has not tracked how the four-day workweek affected savings since 2009, said Employee Services Director Nancy Drury.

However, an internal snapshot of several departments compiled by the employee services department for the board's discussions says returning to five days would likely dent the county's funds by only about $24,000 annually.

"I don't think that spending $20,000 is really addressing what appears to be the problem," Bernard said. "I don't think facts matter here. I think it's a perception that government employees should work five days a week. It's not about efficiencies, it's not about saving money. Because this study indicates we will save money."

While both Savas and Commissioner Martha Schrader said they see the pros of being open five days a week, both voted against it for the whole county. Savas said he wanted more data on the budgetary effects of total conversion, and Schrader said she was not convinced the economy supports opening another day of the week.

After the vote, Bernard said he no longer wanted the issue brought up at meetings.

"Is this done for now or are we going to bring it back next week?" Bernard said. "I want to be done on this subject for this year."

Ludlow said he would accept the vote, but "I'm going to bring it up again next year."